The New York-based company has long been known as a fixed-income institutional manager, but CEO Laurence Fink has pressed into new areas such as exchange traded funds and multi-asset products — areas that took in healthy inflows of cash from investors in the latest quarter.

For the three months ended June 30, net income rose to $619 million, or $3.21 per share, from $432 million, or $2.21 a share, a year earlier, BlackRock reported on Wednesday.

Adjusted earnings were $3.00 a share, topping analysts' average forecast of $2.88, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Assets under management were $3.659 trillion at June 30, up 16 percent from a year earlier and up 0.3 percent from the end of the first quarter.

Analysts attributed the gains to BlackRock's wide range of products, which allowed it to grow despite volatile markets.

"This is a company that I would expect to continue to hit singles and doubles," said Calyon Securities analyst Chris Spahr, using a baseball analogy. "There are not going to be many swings and misses because they're so big, and that's a good thing."

BlackRock shares were up 2.75 percent to $188.75 in premarket trading.

NO LONGER JUST ABOUT FLOWS

In a note to investors, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Douglas Sipkin wrote that BlackRock's scale means it is not as dependent on inflows of cash as its smaller rivals.

"BLK is no longer a play on flow momentum, although we do believe organic growth trends will head higher throughout the year," he wrote.

Investors added a net $18.4 billion to BlackRock's long-term funds during the second quarter, excluding outflows in money funds, some specialized portfolios and merger-related outflows.

As at other fund companies, volatile markets during the quarter meant BlackRock faced both market depreciation and net redemptions from some stock funds. Outflows from its active equity products totaled $8.9 billion.

But investors added money in most other areas. BlackRock's popular iShares exchange traded funds took in $11.6 billion, up 11 percent from the first quarter. Investors added $20.7 billion to its multi-asset class products, which BlackRock said reflected strong demand for fiduciary management and asset allocation products.

GROWTH STRATEGIES

In a statement, Fink said the results showed his emphasis on new areas was paying off.

"We continue to execute on our growth strategies," the chief executive said, adding that the results "attest to the strength of BlackRock's business model and our unique franchise."

BlackRock Inc., the world's largest money manager by assets, marshaled a rapidly growing list of fund styles and asset classes to post a 43 percent jump in second-quarter profit, topping expectations.
The New York-based company has long been known as a fixed-income...